New Jersey's Charming Town Offers A Fun Taste Of '50s Doo-Wop Vibes

Wildwood may be best known as New Jersey's coastal resort city, but it also offers a peek into the 1950s. Apart from its stretches of scenic beaches and thrilling seaside amusement park, the Wildwoods are also hiding the country's largest concentration of mid-century commercial architecture, according to the Wildwoods website, and lots of doo-wop charm. The bold, tropical style that you'll see throughout Wildwood harkens back to the days when the United States was in an economic upswing, and the automobile industry was in a postwar comeback. This meant that more Americans had cars, and as a result, they were enjoying travel at a greater scale than ever before.

This shift was all reflected in the architecture of the time, and one of the Jersey Shore's most beloved vacation destinations is one of the best examples around of this bold, tropical, and nostalgic style. Whether you're a history or architecture buff or you're just looking for a getaway with lots of vintage flair, Wildwood needs to be at the top of your list. To get to Wildwood, drive all the way down New Jersey. It's a little north of Cape May — about an hour and a half from Philadelphia International Airport by car if you're arriving from out of state.

One of New Jersey's most delightful quirks is Wildwood's doo-wop vibes. If you're wondering what exactly "doo-wop" means, it's a term that sprung up in the '90s and describes the type of style you'll see all over the Wildwoods — think bright colors, comic book-like starbursts and boomerang shapes, glass walls, kitschy plastic palm trees, and sharp angles. This style was all the rage in the 1950s and '60s, and incorporates a mix of space age, Polynesian, Chinese, and colonial American influences.

Although today the style feels overwhelmingly vintage (in the best possible way), at the time, it was nothing short of futuristic, and symbolic of a major cultural shift. The style is particularly common among motels, which themselves only saw widespread success in the country after World War II, as cars and travel became more common.

As for the term itself, Britannica says that "doo-wop" came from the musical style of the same name, a rhythm-and-blues and rock fusion involving a lead vocalist along with background harmony from a few other singers. The style was defined early on by the music of the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots and was later adopted by the Temptations and other Motown groups.

Today, according to the Wildwoods website, the area is still home to around 92 historic doo-wop-style motels, like the Caribbean Motel, which has been around since 1956 and is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. You'll even see that some more modern additions to the city have joined the fun and incorporated the style as well. The Doo Wop Diner, for instance, open from April through October, has become one of the top eateries in town since opening around two decades ago. Not only does it offer a varied (and delicious) menu of classic diner fare like breakfast dishes, shakes and malts, burgers, and more, but it's also full of old-school charm, from the doo-wop music playing to fun 1950s decor.

To explore the best of the "Doo-wop Capital of the World" — as the Wildwoods website calls the area — you can even hop on a guided trolley tour. This is only available during the summer. Adult tickets are $25 at the time of writing, and tickets for children ages 5 to 12 are $15. The Doo Wop Preservation League Museum is another must, for a treasure trove of neon signs, decor, and more from the architectural style's heyday. The museum is free to visit, closes in the winter, and has varied hours throughout the year, so check online before visiting. Of course, there's the beach as well, which has been the main attraction in Wildwood for decades. We recently named it one of America's best white sand beaches outside of Florida.